We’re not sure our approach to building our events stand is ‘normal’. It usually involves a scrap of paper, a discussion over a coffee and then Edd disappearing into the garage and fashioning something up.

Luckily Edd’s quite handy so everything is hand built. More importantly, when it comes to DIY, he has a ‘Tinker and Fix’ philosophy. Which means that the starting point is ‘what do we have in the garage that we can reuse’ (including stripping copper wire from the old garage wiring to use to fasten garden tools to our stand displays!).

Following on from this is ‘what is the path of least resistance’ e.g. how can I make this function and look good without expending more energy or money than is required. The end result usually ok. Perfection is, frankly, boring - so being ‘ok’ is far preferable in our eyes. (Luckily we both feel exactly the same!)

But as we go to more shows, we’re having to make different stands to fit.

Because each show has a slightly different stand size. And we keep expanding the number of products we sell - so there’s even more Sneeboer gardening tools, Toyo or Trusco toolboxes to display, Niwaki garden tools to have available to try and test, Carhartt workwear aprons to try on, Opinel and Leatherman multi tools to try to safely show, as well as our skatewood axes and hori-hori’s to showcase to best effect.

So, the pencil sketches are currently evolving. Edd’s DIY skills are being tested. His stand-building Trusco toolbox is getting good use (yes he does have one just for events - filled with specific elementary and King Dick Screwdrivers and spanners, along with his trusted Leatherman, a hammer or two, Whiteley’s scissors for cutting zip ties and plenty of the aforementioned zip ties!)

Come along and have a look at the stand at one of our events we're heading to (and the tools for home, workshop and garden that are on display) - next up, we’ll be at Burghley Horse Trials, Goodwood Revival, before we head into Christmas gift show season... when the stand needs to be decorated for Christmas too (that’s the bit I love doing - as we can hide any stand building mistakes with tinsel and baubles!)